Give My Regards to Broadway

5/19/06 Give My Regards to Broadway
TONY AWARD NOMINATIONS ARE OUT!!!!

In all the birthday excitement (and my secret quarrel with Playbill) I totally forgot to check. For a complete listing of nominees, click here.

I am surprised to see that The Drowsy Chaperone was the leader with 13 nominations. They have not generated particularly huge buzz in the Theatre Community as of yet. They did well in L.A. and have a somewhat curious plot, but it has been in various stages of production since 1998 and most of the creative team are people no one has heard of. Of course now, I’m sure, publicity will go through the roof. And I’m going to have to run and see it before June 11.

Now, while I think Sutton Foster is tremendously talented, and both Patti LuPone and Chita Rivera are legends, I really feel the need to push for LaChanze to win the Lead Actress award. She has one of the most powerful, beautiful, incredible voices I have ever heard. And she gives everything she has when she performs. Once on This Island is one of my favorite cast recordings, and I was able to see her perform in the Los Angeles tryout of Ragtime before Audra McDonald took over the role of Sarah and went with the show to Broadway (and won a Tony for it, as that woman has the Midas Touch). I didn’t actually see The Color Purple, but I know what this woman is capable of. And since I am not actually a TONY voter, I should be allowed to say these things without having seen all the shows. It is a dangerous road to ho though, because I remember how excited I was when I saw Jane Krakowski win for her performance in the NINE revival. After all, I did think she was fantastic as hot secretary Elaine Vassel on Ally McBeal. But when I finally saw the show I realized I would have preferred Mary Stuart Masterson to take it home. …Another surprise from the nominations this year is the missing nod for Alan Cumming in ThreePenny Opera. I know there was some stiff competition this year in that category, but he totally blew the world to pieces as the MC in Cabaret at Studio 54. I can't imagine this performance is any less stellar. Anyway, I’m seeing ThreePenny this weekend. I’ll try to post a few thoughts on Monday.

Three Shows to see this season:

1) Sweeny Todd -Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone doing classic Sondheim.

2) Grey Gardens -(off broadway) The thing is, anything Playwrights Horizons puts up is worth seeing. Of course, half of them end up on Broadway anyway.

3) The Drowsy Chaperone- Leading Nominee with the most Tony AND Drama Desk nominations. I clearly have had a very distracting spring so far. I haven’t been keeping up on my news! Otherwise it might not have been such a surprise. –although in my defense, the show opened May 1. That’s not a significant amount of time to generate real strong buzz.